By Jim McLean
KHI News Service

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A multimillion-dollar plan to transform this city’s downtown into a national model is one step closer to reality.

The Unified Government Board of Commissioners last week unanimously approved a new master development plan designed to help improve the health of Kansas City and other Wyandotte County residents by providing a state-of-the-art community center, more green space in which to exercise and access to healthy foods at a 30,000- to 35,000-square-foot urban grocery store.

The 8-0 vote to approve the Downtown Central Parkway Plan and its signature “healthy campus” occurred only six months after a public forum where city and county residents were openly skeptical that UG officials could move the ambitious plan from concept to reality.

“Trust was a big concern,” said Gordon Criswell, assistant county administrator. At the time of the May forum, he summarized the sentiment expressed as: “We have been let down time and time again, and so … don’t set us up to fail again.”

After the forum, Mayor Mark Holland said, “There’s no shortcut to trust.”
Building trust

Last week, Holland said he viewed the commission’s pro-forma vote to move the project forward as an indication of more trust.
“We’ve had six months of public process, the commissioners have all been engaged in that, and the public has been engaged,” Holland said. “We’ve reached out to every neighborhood group, every stakeholder.”

Still, Holland said, finalizing the plan is one thing; making the vision real with bricks and mortar is another.

“Our challenge now is to go raise the money,” he said.

But even there, much progress already has been made. Revenue generated by the Hollywood Casino at Village West and a $1 million grant from the Wyandotte Health Foundation will provide approximately half of the $12 million to $14 million needed to build the community center, which will be owned by the city/county but managed by the YMCA.
Cathy Harding, CEO of the Wyandotte Health Foundation, said she’s excited to be a partner in the project.

“When the mayor of a large metropolitan area — like Wyandotte County is — says that his top priorities are public works, public safety and public health, with health being one of the three priorities, that is really amazing,” Harding said. “It just says a lot about the leadership there.”

Asked during a recent appearance on KCUR’s “Up to Date” how confident he was that the city/county could raise the additional funds needed from foundations, Holland said: “I’m very confident that we’re going to be able to get this done. And we’re going to get it done because it has to get done.”

Holland said the goal is to have the “funding nailed down” by late spring or early summer of next year.

From Last to…

The plan to revitalize downtown Kansas City, Kan., in ways that helps residents improve their health is rooted in a 2009 report that ranked Wyandotte County as the least healthy county in Kansas. The report was a wake-up call for then-Mayor Joe Reardon and other UG officials.

A couple of years later, the Reardon-led effort to improve Wyandotte County’s health ranking attracted national attention from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

If anything, Holland has intensified the health improvement effort since winning election in April 2013 after Reardon’s retirement from politics. He believes the campus at the heart of the downtown redevelopment project can serve as a model for other cities struggling to reverse generations of poverty and physical neglect.

“The vision we have for the healthy campus downtown is nothing short of a national model for healthy living in an urban area,” Holland said on “Up to Date.” “We’re going into the hardest-hit area and we’re going to move the needle. We’re going to change the environment. We’re going to tear down crummy buildings. We’re going to build new. We’re going to build first-class.”

Access to healthy food

After four years, negotiations to acquire land across the street from the proposed community center and convince the Charles Ball Sunfresh Market to build a $15 million to $18 million grocery store in what Holland calls the downtown “food desert” have reached a critical stage.
“We have a financial gap that we haven’t resolved,” Holland said. “But I’m confident we will resolve that.”

The store will be a partnership between the UG and the company, Holland said, meaning that tax-increment financing will generate some of the funds.

“We’re certainly willing to partner … because the tax that we receive from that store is far less important than the stabilization of the neighborhood around it,” he said.

The project, Holland said, will elevate property values downtown, provide jobs and give people living in or near downtown access to a full-service grocery store for the first time in decades. A study was done to ensure that a downtown location was financially viable, Holland said.

“Remarkably, as it turns out, people in Kansas City, Kansas, buy groceries; they’re just not buying them in Kansas City, Kansas,” he said. “They’re finding a ride or driving to Missouri or Johnson County or somewhere else where there is a nice grocery store. People don’t want to buy groceries in a place that’s run-down.”

Jim McLean is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has approved a bill aimed at reducing a suicide epidemic that claims the lives of 22 military veterans every day.

A bill named for Clay Hunt, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who killed himself in 2011, was approved Tuesday on a voice vote. The bill would require the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs Department to submit to independent reviews of their suicide prevention programs.

It also would establish a website to provide information on mental health services available to veterans, offer financial incentives to psychiatrists who agree to work for the VA and create a pilot program to assist veterans transitioning from active duty to veteran status.

The suicide rate among veterans is about triple the average rate for the general population.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

Salina Post

SALINA- A Salina teenager was sentenced to prison on Tuesday for the 2nd degree murder of his stepbrother.

Saying he poses a serious threat to the public, a Saline County District Court Judge sentenced Ryan Velez, to just over 10 years in prison, for the shooting death of his 9-year-old stepbrother Kaden Harper at their home near Assaria on June 1st of 2010.

Velez will get credit for time he has already served in custody of Saline County and the Larned State Hospital. He would be eligible for release from prison in 2020.

Before handing down the sentence, Judge Patrick Thompson said Velez had a “pattern of problematic behavior and a lack of remorse” while at Larned for shooting Kaden in the face at nearly pointblank range, after he became angry when Kaden called him names.”

Saline County Attorney Ellen Mitchell said Velez was boastful to other patients about the crime while at the state hospital, but would not talk to counselors about the shooting.

Defense attorney Mitch Christians wanted Velez to receive a sentence of 12 to 18 months so he could begin to receive mental health treatment immediately.

Christians said a final evaluation at the state hospital showed Velez suffers from Asbergers disorder.

Kaden’s parents also spoke at the sentencing. Kevin Harper said, “Ryan shows no remorse and is smart enough to not let the truth out.”

Harper also said he believed Ryan remained a threat to himself, society and needed mental health treatment.

Kaden’s mom, Courtney Holmes tearfully said that she was frustrated with having to wait 4 1/2 years for sentencing. She directed comments to Velez saying “Ryan, I don’t know if this will sink in or not, but I forgive you, and cannot be angry at you.”

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Two GOP leaders in the Kansas Senate are criticizing Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan for eliminating a projected $279 million shortfall in the current state budget.

Brownback’s plan would trim spending and divert funds for public pensions to general government programs. His administration unveiled it Tuesday.

Senate President Susan Wagle of Wichita said the governor is picking winners and losers by being selective in cutting. She said she prefers to see the burden of closing the budget shortfall spread evenly.

Senate Vice President Jeff King of Independence criticized the plan for diverting $41 million in contributions to the state pension system. King is chairman of the Senate pensions committee.

King said the plan threatens to undo gains made in recent years to improve the pension system’s long-term financial health.

Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON, Kan. —A Hutchinson man has been arrested on suspicion of firing on officers Monday evening.

Police say Jason Mendoza, 31, is jailed for suspicion of three counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and criminal discharge of a firearm. He was arrested about Tuesday afternoon without incident.

Police say three officers were conducting a follow up investigation in the 300 Block of East 2^nd Avenue just after 10:15 p.m. on Monday when a single shot was fire in their direction.

Officers found a shell casing from a .30 caliber semi automatic handgun but did not locate the round itself.

Witnesses told police they saw a man wearing a jacket running from the scene.

Officers found the jacket but no suspect.

 

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HUTCHINSON — Hutchinson Police continue to search for a man who fired on three officers Monday night.

Police said three officers were conducting a follow-up investigation in the 300 block of East Second Avenue just after 10:15 p.m. when a single shot was fired in their direction.

Officers found a shell casing from a .30 caliber semi-automatic handgun but did not locate the round.

Witnesses told police they saw a man wearing a jacket running from the scene.

Officers found the jacket but no suspect.

No one was injured and no arrests have been made at this time.

The Associated Press –

The Energy Department has again slashed its prediction for next year’s average price of gasoline across the U.S., this time to $2.60 a gallon.

That’s 23 percent below the projected average for this year and the lowest since 2009.

If that comes to pass, the price drop will save U.S. drivers $100 billion over the course of the year.

In its most recent short-term energy outlook, released Tuesday, the Energy Department cut its gasoline price forecast for 2015 by 35 cents a gallon. It was the second cut of more than 30 cents a gallon in two months.

The average national price of gasoline fell to $2.66 a gallon Tuesday, according to AAA, 61 cents less than last year. The national average has fallen every day since September 26.

TOPEKA — The Kansas Historical Society announced that two portions of the Soule Canal in Gray County are the newest Kansas properties added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places entered the listings into the Register on October 15. This brings the total number of Kansas listings in the National Register to 1,379.

Below is a summary of the listings:

Soule Canal – Gray County Segments One and Two

The Soule Canal was one of the largest irrigation projects in Kansas during the late 19th century, and segments of the 96-mile earthen ditch are intact outside the various city limits in Gray and Ford counties.

Brothers John and George Gilbert partnered with financier and New York native Asa Soule to develop the canal, which was constructed to carry water from the Arkansas River to farms in southwest Kansas for irrigation purposes. Construction of the canal began in April 1884 and was completed in 1889. It took two years, 60 horses, 150 men, and between $250,000 and $1 million to dig the channel that stretched from Ingalls in Gray County to Spearville in Ford County.

The canal was a complete failure, due in part to the nature of its construction, including a risk of side slopes collapsing and water loss due to seepage, and the fact that there was nobody in charge of maintaining it. Attempts to revive the canal in 1909 and 1931 were unsuccessful.

The two nominated sites include the westernmost extant segments of the canal located nearest the long-buried sump or collecting pool that was adjacent to the Arkansas River southeast of Ingalls.

The westernmost site, known as Gray County Segment One, includes a remnant of the early 20th century alignment of U.S. Highway 50, which cuts through the west edge of the canal structure. The roadbed and associated roadway elements illustrate a considerable obstacle to the efforts to revive the canal in the early 20th century, thus ending future attempts to utilize the ditch for irrigation purposes.

The second nominated site, known as Gray County Segment Two is a linear area with two distinct portions of the canal located adjacent to the north of U.S. Highway 50 east of Ingalls.

Both sites were nominated as part of the Historic Resources of the Soule Canal for its statewide significance in the areas of agriculture, community planning and development, engineering, and archeology.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA says a newly spotted 1,300-foot wide asteroid is not a threat to hit Earth, despite recent media reports.

NASA’s Near Earth Object program manager Donald Yeomans said the asteroid, discovered in October by Russian scientists, won’t even get that close to Earth in the next 150 years. And it isn’t a threat to any other planet, either.

Calculations by NASA and Harvard say the closest asteroid 2014 UR116, will get to Earth is about 2.7 million miles in April 2047. Yeomans said that is so far away that it doesn’t make NASA’s running list of risky near-Earth objects.

Yeomans said in-depth analysis confirmed that that the space rock would not near Earth soon.